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INDIA

important post at Tiz, the ruins of which are to be found
close to the telegraph post of Charbar, some 100 miles to
the west of Gwadur, in Persian territory. From Tiz they
established a somewhat circuitous overland route which
is rendered obligatory, partly by the great barrier of the
Malan mountains blocking the coast, and partly by the
deep indentations, or arms of the sea, extending far inland
from the present fishing village of Sonmiani which lies at
the head of the bay of that name. It was a well-known
and well-formed highroad with regular stages and large
flourishing towns at intervals which then connected Tiz
with the Indus Valley. The stages were, however, long
(as stages ridden by Arabs on camels usually are), and the
full length of the journey from Tiz to the ancient city of
Debal in the Indus delta was completed in far less time
than we should now be able to traverse it by similar
methods. This route passed by Turbat (near the ancient
Kej) and then followed the Kej Valley to a point near its
head. Passing by Las Bela and Uthal (formerly known
under other names) it turned the barrier of the Sind frontier
hills not very far from Karachi and debouched into the
Indus delta.
When the Arab conqueror, Muhammad Kasim, invaded
India and conquered all Sind about the year A.D. 720,
he found no difficulty in traversing Makran with his
Syrian Arabs, Makran being then an Arab dependency;
and probably far more developed in the matter of internal
resources than it has ever been since. No practicable
military road to India from the west lies along the coast
of Makrén, in spite of the fact that it denotes the line of
telegraph communication between India and Europe ; and
yet it is near the coast that we find most, and clearest,
evidences of successive migrations from Mesopotamia,
Media, and Persia towards India. The Parsis of Bombay,
last existing representatives of Zoroastrian supremacy in
Persia, have here left evidence of their final exodus from
Persia eastwards. Before them were Dravidian irruptions
innumerable in prehistoric times, the traces of which can
be found written in the face of the hills and valleys of